Gun-toting Lawyer Requests Injunction Against Seattle Ban

Last month Warden filed a complaint against the Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the city itself in U.S. District Court, alleging the city’s gun ban defies his constitutional right to bear arms.

The complaint cited an executive order Nickels issued in June, directing all departments to review then-present rules “to determine the extent to which departments could prohibit firearms on city property.”

Nickels last month banned guns on city facilities where children are likely to frequent. The places on the ban list include parks, playgrounds, community and environmental learning centers, sports fields and courts, swimming beaches, pools, water play areas, skate parks and golf courses.

“The purported interested, to protect children from gun violence, has no substance and no objective facts behind it,” Warden writes in his motion.

Warden mentions a study cited by the defendants in support of the gun ban. The study by the University of Pennsylvania found “people with a gun were 4.5 more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing guns,” the motion said.

However, Warden argues “their sample of persons shot by a gun while carrying a gun was composed mostly of drug dealers, others with criminal records, cab drivers, and women being stalked … Is anyone enlightened by the stunningly obvious claim that armed drug dealers are more likely to be shot by guns than your average person?”

Warden, 44, protested the city’s new gun ban by walking into the Southwest Community Center in West Seattle while carrying his gun at high noon on a Saturday last month.

He had forewarned parks officials of his intent and, as a result, was asked to leave immediately after entering the center. Warden complied.

In requesting the injunction, Warden wrote, “If Plaintiff went to the Southwest Community Center with his pistol tomorrow, there is no reason to suspect that the rule would be enforced.”

Warden added that such deprivation of constitutional rights is “inherently irreparable” since “damages cannot be compensable in money.” Read more